The goal of this thesis is to explore the ‘signs’ of reformed church historically. I will use historical approach to trace the development of ‘signs’ in order to elaborate its validity and applicability to the contemporary church. This thesis is a subset of ecclesiology, but it will not cover all aspects of ecclesiology. This thesis will build upon the foundation of reformed theology.

The ‘signs of true church ’are products of history. I will trace out the ‘signs’ from different periods, so that the developments of signs could be identified. The crucial question of this thesis is “how does the signs of true church form, develop, and practice in history?” The method of this thesis is to sort out the signs in history chronologically. In the process of investigating the ‘signs’, the thesis could lay down the historical and theoretical foundation of the authentic signs of church and apply them to Chinese churches nowadays.

First of all, this thesis could not bypass the period of Church Fathers, because the period of Church Father is an important period in the formation of many key Christian doctrines. Many controversial doctrinal ideas in the later age actually could be traced back to the prototype ideas in the period of Church Father. The signs of true church proposed by the Church Fathers laid the foundation for later reformers. The reformers built upon the foundation of Church Fathers and applied them in their contemporary contexts. Hence, the ‘signs’ from Church Fathers have many similarities to the ‘signs’ from the reformers. In other words, the ‘signs’ of the reformers were inspired and influenced from the church fathers.

Then the thesis will elucidate the context, background, development and purpose in the formation of the ‘signs.’ I will analyze the reformers’ proposal of ‘signs’ in the historical and theological context. Then the thesis will explore the understanding of the ‘signs’, its’ prorogations and applications from different groups and persons. Following groups and persons will be included, namely reformers, puritans, Joseph Tong, and John Frame. The final chapter will illustrate that the ‘signs’ will have valuable contribution and application to the contemporary church.

The goal of this research is for laying down the theoretical, and historical grounds on the ‘signs of true church’, so that they can be applied to church today.

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